96 Taco build thread

Sempertoy

Explorer
Well, this build thread is long overdue. I figured if I just posted the first picture now it will make me finish it and bring it up to date. I will try not to bore anyone, and I will post lots of pictures because that is what we all like. The thread may take a minute to complete, seeing as I bought this truck in Oct of 2008, there have been a few years of pictures and mods.


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Here in stock form. Good looking truck:) I wonder if the truck knew what it would become?

Here is what she is today. Ill take you through the steps that made that happen

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Sempertoy

Explorer
The first thing that came in the mail was the allprooffroad.com bumper. They were running a deal at the time so I got the diff and t case skids for free? I think thats how that worked out........:sombrero:

Well here is the bumper

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And here is the install in progress

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you might notice the snow on the ground. That's just how hardcore I am.

And this is what it looked like on. Note: the electrical tape holding on the turn signals was a temporary fix. I only ran it like that for about 6 months:Wow1: one day I was in home depot and randomly saw hose clamps. Problem solved!!
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Also, in my infinite wisdom and supremecy, you can see I mounted the lights UNDER the bumper... Don't worry. I moved them before one got broken ;)

Next My lift arrived in the mail:jumping:

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the rear isn't anything to write home about. Just AAL and blocks.. yeah I know... total P.O.G (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100822153642AAvk0XC) for my brothers in arms.

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After the coilovers and before the blocks.. So sad to look back on..

And this is when the lift was done. Time to enjoy all my "hard" work
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I had the snorkel holes cut out at jackit suspensions in Utah, I went home and bolted it on.

This is a shot to highlight some of the most important mods I have done for the money
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In this picture you can clearly see seven (7) stickers and one (1) American flag stick on and (1) Texas longhorns stick on. The stickers brought roughly 10-12 hp each, and the two stick on's 15 each. Add that up and we have an extra 100 hp to the wheels!!

This next picture clearly demonstrates a big booboo that I made.. Don't ask me why I did it... It was a learning experience. Right? If you can't tell, I'm talking about the hack job done on the fenders.
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After a trip to Moab, my truck was parked for about a year. I joined the Marine Corps in January went to the Easter jeep safari in April and shipped out to bootcamp in May.
Here is a picture of me after graduation posing with my two favorites. (This is now my wife)
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This was around August of '09. The truck sat in this spot for roughly one year until my mom came to visit us in San Diego and drove my truck out for me. Nice lady eh?
Nothing was done to the truck when I got it out here, and to be honest I thought really hard about selling it. I was doing work ups to get ready for deployment which meant driving roughly 110 miles per day for work. I am so happy I didn't sell it now.

When I got home from Afghanistan I sold my mountain bike and got some new shoes for 'ol reliable
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Put the doors back on and attempted to Fix aforementioned booboo.
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I have also done 4 halogen rocklights this summer. I don't have any pictures. I am pretty new to the forum world, so it's just luck that I have pictures of most of my work. I promise to photodocument everything that I do from now on.
My wife bought me a CB for my birthday. It can be seen here. I got really bored with the dash:coffee: So I ran to the store and bought the first color of paint I thought would look good with tan.
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and then I took the dash apart
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Took care of the three stooges that have been plauging me since I bought the truck
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Painted it and put it all back together
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And that's how the truck sits today! Stay tuned for a lockright install
 

Sempertoy

Explorer
And this is the latest impulse buy.
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I am looking to buy the optional GPS unit as well as a back up camera.
 

Sempertoy

Explorer
Free.99

In order to keep the peace around the house I have been looking for some free things to do with the Taco.

So I decided that first I would post some pictures that are not on the pavement.. It seems everything that I have posted is my truck in the driveway. So for your enjoyment

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I wish I could say this was in some awesome remote location. It's not. It's on base lol..

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Just because.

Hope you enjoy. More free ideas are coming!
 

Sempertoy

Explorer
more free

So I took one look at this and decided It could use a good clean. I own a vacuum, therefore free.99

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So first thing i did was take out the passenger side seat so I could still drive to work the next day.

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Viola! dos seatos.

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Some entertainment while working. Rob and Big of course :sombrero:

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Sempertoy

Explorer
Took this crap out. Cleaned up the rats nest of wires.

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Lucky I didn't burn down eh?

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Cleaned the inside

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Then cleaned the outside!!

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Look at all the fun you can have for free :victory:
 

austintaco

Explorer
I like it. The Longhorn decal stands out as the best "bang for you buck" mod:ylsmoke:

What size tired did you have on there, and what did you move up to?
 

Sempertoy

Explorer
I like it. The Longhorn decal stands out as the best "bang for you buck" mod:ylsmoke:

What size tired did you have on there, and what did you move up to?

haha hook 'em horns! you will be sad to hear that I took that off... I was on 33x10.5's and then moved up to 35x12.5. They rub here and there but the clearance has been awesome!
 

Sempertoy

Explorer
A poor man's camper

I posted about this already but I wanted it to be a part of my thread. Long story short I had been looking for a camper on craigslist for under 200 bucks. I knew at that price it wasn't going to be anything fancy. So I called around and found one that I "liked" and asked if he wanted to trade an old harbor freight hi lift I had for it. He said yes, so that night I went and got my sweet sweet camper.

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annnnnd and shameless pose in the desert
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Louisd75

Adventurer
haha yeah, overspray made me mad... but what can you do? ( except tape off better the next time :sombrero: )

After my first trip at sea, I came home and found that someone had spray painted with bright red paint on the side of my cream colored VW bus. I went over to Home Depot and they had a small section of graffiti removers. I picked up a few and gave them a shot. It didn't seem to me like any one in particular worked better than the rest and they all did a decent job. Not perfect, but you can't tell from five feet away.
 

Sempertoy

Explorer
Well after almost three years exactly, the Tacoma is gone. I wish I could say that it went to a better place, but with the young man who bought it from me talking about subs and amps, I don't think it did.. However, it has been used and abused by me, so maybe she is ready for a nice quite life as a pavement pounder. I have great memories in the Tacoma. But I'm looking forward to my new build. Stay tuned to see what it is!

Here is the day that I got it, 21 years old.
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And the day I sold it. A salty war dog of 24.
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